Making pizza on the Blackstone is even easier than the oven. You can use any crust, whether it’s homemade, store-bought or unconventional like flatbread or naan and load it with your favorite toppings that are cooked right there on the griddle itself. Making Blackstone pizza will become one of your new favorite weekly dinners with this easy method!
If you’re a weekly pizza kind of household with a Blackstone griddle sitting outside, hopefully this recipe will make pizza night easier, quicker and with less clean up to deal with.
I personally love this method over the oven because it contains all the cooking to one surface. There’s no extra pans to cook ingredients that have to be cleaned up later, everything is done right there on the griddle.
My Pro Tip
Recipe Tip
Cooking on the Blackstone is a little different than using the oven because the heat is only coming from the bottom. Because there’s no heating element on top, in order to get your cheese to melt and your toppings warm, you have to adjust your cooking approach a little bit when making pizza. There are two important pieces to this:
- Use a melting dome that’s safe for the Blackstone.
- Preheat the sauce and pre-cook toppings such as vegetables.
The good news is that pre-cooking toppings can be done right on the Blackstone itself.
Blackstone Pizza Ingredients
We’ll cover the basics, but making pizza is such a personal preference that much of the recipe is in the toppings and those can be customized to whatever your preferences are.
- Your favorite pizza dough — this can be a homemade dough recipe or something store-bought, including gluten-free dough.
- Extra virgin olive oil — this is used to cook the vegetables to top the pizza as well as to season the pizza crust.
- Pizza sauce — grab your favorite jarred or canned pizza sauce to keep things easy or use a homemade recipe you like.
- Mozzarella — you’ll want to grate or shred the mozzarella for the pizza but I highly recommend doing that yourself instead of buying pre-shredded cheese because it will melt better.
- Italian seasoning — this is optional but it can be used to flavor the pizza crust and the toppings.
Topping Options
Once you’ve got the basics down for the pizza crust, sauce and cheese, the toppings are totally up to you. Here are some favorites that make for a great Blackstone pizza recipe:
- Bell peppers
- Onions
- Mushrooms
- Cooked crumbled sausage (cook it on the griddle)
- Pepperoni
- Black olives
If you choose to use the peppers, onions and mushrooms like we’ve done in these pictures, you’ll want to cook them on the griddle first. The recipe below includes instructions on doing that to assemble the pizza.
Garnish Options
Once the pizza is cooked, you’ve also got plenty of garnish options to finish things off before slicing and serving — like any good pizzeria would have. Some of those include:
- Red pepper flakes
- Garlic powder
- Onion powder
- Grated parmesan cheese
- Fresh basil
How to Make Pizza on the Blackstone
Start by preheating the griddle. The surface should be between 450-500°F. I use an infrared laser thermometer to make sure it’s sufficiently heated. While the Blackstone heats up, warm up the pizza sauce too, especially if it’s been in the refrigerator.
Prepare your pizza dough. If you’re using a homemade recipe or a store-bought dough that needs to be rolled out, make sure that your melting dome fits over the entire surface when you roll it out. I opt for a pizza shape that’s just shy of 12-inches round so the dome will fit over it without issue.
Brush the dough with olive oil and season with Italian seasoning. Place the pizza dough on the preheated griddle with the seasoned side face down. If using uncooked dough, you’ll want to cook for about 2-3 minutes on the first side, then flip it over and cook for another 2 minutes on the other side until the dough is cooked through. Precooked pizza crust or alternatives like flatbread or naan will only need to be heated up and therefore require less time on the hot griddle.
At the same time, place the prepared vegetable toppings on the griddle and sauté with olive oil. Cook until softened, but not mushy which should only take a couple of minutes.
Once you flip the pizza dough, spread a thin layer of sauce over the entire surface of the crust. Sprinkle the cheese on top of the sauce then add your selected toppings, including the cooked vegetables if using.
Cover the pizza with the melting dome so the cheese melts. Once the cheese is fully melted and the crust is cooked through, remove the pizza from the griddle. Let it rest for a few minutes before garnishing as desired, slicing and serving.
More Pizza Topping Ideas
If you need some more pizza inspiration, we’ve got plenty of different topping ideas:
- Shredded chicken
- BBQ sauce
- Sausage
- Pineapple
- Canadian bacon (ham)
- Bacon crumbles
- Pesto sauce like our arugula pesto, zucchini pesto or radish greens pesto.
Or take some inspiration from any of our other pizza recipes and recreate your favorite on the Blackstone.
How to Keep the Dough from Sticking to the Griddle
If the dough keeps sticking, make sure your griddle is clean and free of any previous food that may still be on the griddle. If your dough continues to stick to the griddle, add a little olive oil to the griddle directly. Another reason your dough may be sticking is the griddle isn’t finished fully warming up. Be sure your griddle has had enough time to fully warm up.
How to Account For Different Crust Thickness
Each thickness of crust will cook at different rates and for different amounts of time. I used a medium thickness in this recipe. If you are using a thicker crust like you would for a skillet pizza, you may need to add an additional 1-3 minutes on each side depending on how much thicker of a crust you are using. If you are using a thinner crust, you will use less time than what I have listed in the directions. You will probably only need about 1-2 minutes. This is all an estimate. The lengths of time will solely depend on the thickness of crust you are using. Just be sure the dough is slightly browned on each side.
Can I Use a Gluten-Gree Crust?
Yes, you can use any homemade or store-bought gluten-free pizza crust that you prefer.
How to Make This Ahead of Time
You can make these pizzas ahead of time and store them in the refrigerator in a sealed container for up to 3 days. Reheat it right on the Blackstone before serving.
Blackstone Pizza
Equipment
Ingredients
- Your favorite pizza dough, homemade or store bought
- 3-4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 14 ounces pizza sauce, warmed
- 8 ounces shredded mozzarella
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning, optional
Toppings options
- red bell peppers
- onion
- sliced mushrooms
- cooked sausage
- pepperoni
- black olives
Garnish options
- Salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, garlic powder, onion powder
- Fresh basil
Instructions
- Preheat your Blackstone griddle to low heat while you prepare your pizza dough. If you are using an infrared thermometer, the temperature of the Blackstone should be between 450°F and 500°F evenly across the surface you are planning on using.
- Prepare your dough according to the packaging or the recipe you are using. Once your dough has been formed into a 12-inch round pizza crust (be sure your melting dome can easily fit over the entire crust), drizzle about one tablespoon of olive oil on each side. Add about ½ teaspoon of Italian seasoning to the top side of the pizza crust. If you are using an uncooked dough, gently poke several holes throughout the dough to prevent any bubbling.
- Add your prepared vegetables to the griddle. Gently saute the vegetables with the remaining olive oil until they are soft, but not mushy; about 3-5 minutes. Once these are finished, remove from the griddle, cover and keep them warm.
- Place the pizza dough with the seasoning face down onto the hot griddle. If your crust is pre-cooked, you are just warming up each side of the crust, about 1-2 minutes each side. If you are using uncooked dough, you will want to be sure the dough is cooked thoroughly. Cook for about 2 minutes on the first side, or until the bottom is lightly browned. After 2 minutes, carefully flip the dough and do the same to the other side. Note: The amount of time to cook the pizza crust will depend on the thickness of your dough.
- As soon as the dough has been flipped, immediately spread a thin layer of pizza sauce over the cooked side of the crust while the bottom is still cooking. Sprinkle a single layer of shredded mozzarella cheese evenly over the sauce. Finally, add a single layer of your favorite pizza toppings. Note: Be careful with how much cheese and pepperoni you add. The more cheese and pepperoni, the more grease. I recommend absorbing any grease with a paper towel to prevent the dough from becoming soggy if this happens.
- Cover the pizza with a melting dome or a griddle safe lid until the cheese has become melted. Note: If the dough is cooking too fast and the cheese still isn’t fully melted, remove the pizza from the griddle onto a board and continue to keep the melting dome over the pizza. The heat will continue to melt the cheese as long as the dome is left on over the pizza.
- Once the cheese is fully melted, carefully remove the pizza. Slice and serve immediately.
Notes
- Use your favorite gluten-free pizza dough or pre-baked crust for a gluten-free Blackstone pizza recipe.
- For a quick and easy midweek dinner, use your favorite store bought pitas or naan bread as the crust. Just warm both sides, add your toppings, and let it rest under the melting dome until the cheese is fully melted. You can keep these in the freezer and pull them out on the days you need a quick dinner.
- If you have little ones, sort each topping option into smaller amounts in dishes and place those in front of them. This allows the kids to still create their own pizza without using an excess amount of items.
- Did you know you can make any type of pizza you’d like? Not just pizza sauce and pepperoni. You can try our BBQ Hawaiian Pizza, Breakfast Pizza and Hummus Pizza on the Blackstone griddle.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Gina Matsoukas is an AP syndicated writer. She is the founder, photographer and recipe developer of Running to the Kitchen — a food website focused on providing healthy, wholesome recipes using fresh and seasonal ingredients. Her work has been featured in numerous media outlets both digital and print, including MSN, Huffington post, Buzzfeed, Women’s Health and Food Network.
